After shelving their carbon-fiber suspension models a couple years ago, Esker Cycles is back with two new full-squish, full metal bikes; the Howdy and the Woodsy. Each is available with either aluminum or titanium front triangles, and each features the Dave-Weagle-designed Orion link. Oh, and each has external cable routing. We’ve got the details to tide you over until we get our hands on one… or two.
Carbon fiber is a marvelous material. It’s not perfect, but it sure is light, versatile, and surprisingly tough. It’s become synonymous with high-end bikes, especially high-end full-suspension bikes. So, it makes sense that otherwise metal-core brands like Spot or Why Cycles (now Revel) would go full carbon when fully committing to full-squish. But the most unique example may be when Esker Cycles (formerly Advocate) did the same, combining not only that fancy material but a fancy new linkage.
Back in 2018, Esker Cycles released the Elkat all-mountain bike, followed two years later by the trail-oriented Rowl. Both were very sleek and very carbon, but carbon wasn’t necessarily the goal when Esker founder Tim Krueger first set out to make his own full-suspension bikes. He had previously helped design a number of Salsa’s full-suspension bikes using Dave Weagle’s Split Pivot linkage, mostly in aluminum.
Krueger had a fondness for one of Weagle’s better-known platforms, DW-link. So, he approached him with plans to build a brand that could offer aluminum DW-link bikes at a lower price than was available from Ibis or Pivot, who were carbon-only at the time. But Weagle had been working on a new design called the Orion Link.
Orion is one of the first (non-high-pivot) suspension concepts built for the single-chainring world we live in today. Of course, all modern full-suspension frames are now designed around a single chainring, but they’re technically using new iterations of suspension concepts that were born in the days of triple chainrings. Orion could only ever work for one ring, which is why when Weagle designed it way back in 2005, he only had motorcycles in mind.
The time had finally come to bring the cutting-edge concept to mountain bikes, and carbon fiber seemed like a better fit than aluminum for a potentially revolutionary new linkage design. Thus, the Elkat and Rowl were born, with plans to eventually follow up with alloy versions. But then, industry disruptions related to COVID delayed and eventually shelved those plans. So, when it came time to update Esker’s full-suspension lineup, Krueger had some decisions to make.
A few things were happening at the time. For one thing, the last factory specializing in carbon full-suspension frame manufacturing had left Taiwan. Krueger much preferred dealing with Taiwan over China, so that would have been tough. But also, opinions were changing around aluminum, and metal in general. A few truly boutique aluminum full-suspension bikes were dropping, and the numbers of steel and titanium ones were growing.
And finally, bikes were just getting so good. The geometry, suspension, drivetrain- everything was so much better than it was ten years ago. Therefore, the performance delta between a carbon bike and an aluminum bike was shrinking. Carbon isn’t going away, and it still has its benefits. But sometimes, ya can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a wag-the-dog phenomenon behind carbon’s continued dominance. Like, when a brand opts for carbon fiber, maybe it’s not a purely performance-based decision. Maybe it’s partly a response to consumer expectations of what a high-end bike “should” be.
If you ask Esker, this is what they should be. They just dropped two new full-suspension models, each available in two configurations. And all of them are metal. There’s the 145 mm-rear-travel, 160 mm-front travel Woodsy, named after the US Forest Service mascot who taught us to “give a hoot.” Then there’s the 125 mm / 140 mm Howdy. That one pays homage to a lesser-known USFS spokes-animal, a raccoon who apparently wants forest users to “put out.”
Every new Esker full-suspension model uses a 6061 aluminum rear triangle. But for the front triangle, you can either opt for matching 6061, or you can spring for the Howdy Ti or Woodsy Ti in glorious 3-2.5 titanium. Esker is no stranger to titanium. All of their mountain and drop-bar-mountain bikes are available in either ti or steel, with their groundbreaking Hayduke LVS being a titanium-only affair. But of course, this is full suspension. All that metal has to move. So, Esker brought back the Orion link for their return to full-suspension, and it definitely moves.
The goal behind the Orion link isn’t anything new. It seeks to prevent drivetrain forces from compressing the shock, which can cost you energy, or locking out the shock, which can cost you traction and energy. Most new suspension designs do a pretty good job at this in normal situations. But performance tends to drop off in certain gears or at certain points in the travel.
Orion is remarkably consistent. One benefit of this is that Orion bikes tend to have pretty light compression damping, which can make for even better sensitivity, and thus, better traction on chunky climbs. Of course, we’ll have to wait until we get our review bikes to find out if they deliver on the promise.
Along with the metal frames, Esker has built in a few features to the Howdy and Woodsy that are sure to win hearts and minds. Threaded bottom brackets, relatively tall stack height, and lots of accessory mounts to name a few. But what will probably grab a few headlines in the alternative-cycling press is their full external cable routing. And you know what? It looks just fine.
Esker Howdy and Woodsy Geometry
In both models, alloy framesets will start at $2,000 and alloy completes will start at $4,000. Titanium frames will start at $3,500, with titanium completes starting at $5,500. We’ll update this post with news on availability, and we’ll have reviews coming soon.
See more at Esker
